Sunday, February 21, 2010

Gameday Preview: Stars at Grand Rapids Griffins

Texas Stars31-19-3-4, 69 pts#3 West Division

at

Grand Rapids Griffins24-30-2-1, 51 pts#7 North Division

February 21st at 3:00 PM

Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, MI

The Stars are back in action today against more of the dregs of the North Division. On Friday, Texas faced off against the #6 team in the North, Toronto, and left with an L. Today Texas faces the worst team in the North Division, the worst team in the West Conference, and the 3rd worst team in the entire league. The Stars have already played the Griffins four times, going 1-3-0-0. The only win came at home in the Stars' 6th game of the season on October 15th.

The Stars got shut down by Grand Rapids in a very disheartening game at the Cedar Park Center 2-1 on February 9th. The Griffins had a certain jump in their step that night, and the Stars could not match intensity. Texas went on to close out their home stand with two losses against the Wolves and are 2-3-0-0 since the loss to the Griffins. The Griffins are 1-2-2-0 since the game and are currently on a four game losing streak since rocking the Aeros 7-2 in Houston. The Griffins are coming off a tough game last night against Peoria wherein they were up 3-0 after 22 minutes, then surrendered five straight for a 5-3 loss.

The Griffins are talented with Patrick Rissmiller leading the charge. Daniel Larsson was the goalie who stymied 30 of 31 shots last time in Austin and he may be back again tonight with McCollum starting last night. Grand Rapids is mid-pack on both the power play and the penalty kill. They do not take a terribly large number of penalties (15.16, 7th fewest in the league), but are coming off a game where they combined with Peoria for 64 minutes of penalties. Of course, that's a bit of Peoria's game coming out as well, since we know what kind of team they are.

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